House Republicans forgot to act like Republicans, so they lost by Noah Wall, November 07, 2018 01:14 AM

The results are in, and Republicans have lost the majority in the House of Representatives. This outcome was disappointing, but not surprising.

The president’s party loses an average of 32 seats in the House during a midterm election year. It has been this way since 1862, with only two exceptions. Republican leadership needed an unusually high GOP turnout to preserve the majority, and as luck would have it, they had the tools to make it happen.

Republicans had control over two branches of government, a strong economy, a president enthusiastically stumping for GOP candidates, even a last-minute enthusiasm boost from the Brett Kavanaugh hearings.

If ever there was a year for a historic upset, this would have been it. Unfortunately, congressional Republicans failed to check off the most important box of all: They forgot to govern like Republicans.

When congressional Republicans govern like Democrats, likely GOP voters stay home. This is normally the moment when Republican Party “strategists” release a 100-page autopsy to analyze “what went wrong” this cycle, but I will save them the trouble.

Rather than seizing the once-in-a-generation opportunity to create an enduring legacy of free markets, lower taxes, shrinking debts, and economic growth, Republicans in Congress made four critical mistakes that ultimately cost them the majority.

Mistake #1: Ignored regular order, governed by manufactured crisis

Under Republican watch, Congress passed two huge spending bills with almost no time for legislators to read the bill before the vote. Republican leadership justified the last-minute vote by claiming it avoided a shutdown, but really it was a self-manufactured crisis.

Republican leadership promised a return to regular order. They promised voters that a GOP majority would follow the annual appropriations process as it’s written. Yet, GOP voters were looking at another broken promise, another fiscal emergency.

Mistake #2: Passed giant spending bills

Republican leadership forced through a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill that busted spending caps and increased our national debt to $22 trillion. After such a massive spending spree, it’s almost impossible for the GOP to maintain credibility as the party of fiscal responsibility.

In 2011, the FreedomWorks Tea Party Debt Commission, led by volunteer grassroots activists, created a budget that would cut spending by at least $9 trillion and balance the federal budget in less than 10 years without raising taxes. If everyday citizens can solve the debt problem, why can’t a Republican majority?

Mistake #3: Failed to repeal Obamacare

Republican leadership talked a big game about “repealing and replacing” Obamacare, especially during the 2016 election season. It was easy for GOP legislators to speak in bold rhetoric while hiding behind the almost certain veto of President Barack Obama.

With Republican control of the White House, there was nothing stopping the repeal of Obamacare except for other turncoat Republicans. The individual mandate is gone. Healthcare premiums have spiked across the country. So many insurance providers left the state exchanges that 21 percent of Obamacare consumers are faced with a monopoly in the marketplace.

Once again, Republican voters were left shaking their heads. All the Republican majority had to do was call time of death on the failed program. They had one job.

When chairman of the House Freedom Caucus Mark Meadows, R-N.C., votes according to the principles outlined in the Constitution, former Speaker of the House John Boehner calls him “an idiot.”

Republicans lost the House majority because they have completely abandoned the fiscally conservative principles that got them sent to Washington in the first place. It’s time for Republican leadership to clean house and take accountability for their policy failures. Obama is not around to blame anymore.

If Republican leadership is unwilling to fight for a pro-liberty agenda, they should yield to the rising generation of conservative leaders who are willing to do so — if they want to win elections, that is.

Well I awakened and the sun is still rising in the East. America has accepted Nancy Pilosi as speaker, Maxine Waters and Adam Shiff to head committees, the denunciation of ICE, the safety of all LE, open borders and and the rule of law in general that protects us all. The economy and jobs that feeds our family and their safety, everyone of us that makes our lives better have been rebuked. What does this tell you about the greatest nation on earth other than living off its former reputation?

Later on the sun will set in the West and tomorrow America will die just a bit more. We are a very young nation considering societies than span a thousand years and more and history will record the greatest rise and fall dwarfing the Roman Empire....but who of us will be here to tell the stories of the opportunity we squandered.

I disagree completely with OP's assessment of why we lost. Explain why Ocasio-Cortz won in a landslide. That chick couldn't put together a coherent sentence on where the money would come from to fund her 30 trillion dollar programs. This was an election of "free sh!t". Because that's what they all ran on. Free stuff. Booming economy, historically low unemployment, sizzling economy, and we got our asses handed to us on the promise of free stuff. Plain and simple.

I'd like to organize some protests and violent demonstrations but given the vast majority have jobs it may be difficult to agree on an acceptable date and time.

Bowbender, You could not get enough people to field a punt return team to protest the destruction of a once great nation. Everyone who believes in the America of another age is too old, too fat, too comfortable or too complacent to give a damn. You would think that people would feel compelled to defend the nation that was built on the sweat and tears of our forefathers who provided this paradise. Obviously we are not and never were up to the task that they left us believing that America was impervious to all that destroyed other great nations. Now we are cast high upon the heap of the tragic comedies of past civilizations who committed the same errors believing themselves to be above God. Defending what this nation has become and has accepted today is a travesty. Who cares? Well, yesterday could have answered that question but the nation decided, with their own consent no less, to vote otherwise.

Noah is on to something, though I don't agree these are the reasons for the loss. I see this a message issue as well. Though I wholeheartedly agree that passing the spending bill was a huge mistake, I see the bigger issue related to how Republican leadership was unable to lead their members to oppose spending and break down the omibus as it should be voted on with reasons why. The Republican House was feckless at best and seemed to lose their way. They haven't acted with passion for years. I believe it will take someone like Jim Jordan to bring some real leadership back to this spineless bunch of ninnies and give the voters something to vote for.

Didn't help 40+ of em stepped aside or resigned. Some of the rest ran away from Trump and lost. 2020 will be fun, 2 short years away! Meanwhile watch the obstructionist party of no trip all over themselves pissin money away chasin fairytales.

Women, the PC socialists and immigration hordes are the future of this nation. Trying to discover why the House flipped is futile. In the very present you are looking at the future because rural conservative America is shrinking in sheer numbers and urban liberal America is expanding. Mathematics and progressives are the culprit here.